


The Simple Life

by Quidell



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Friendship/Love, Funny, Humor, Romance, Rough Sex, Sexual Content, Sexual Humor, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-15
Updated: 2016-06-18
Packaged: 2018-07-15 06:32:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7211756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quidell/pseuds/Quidell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Quinn lives the simple life. Nothing special ever happens to her...she grew up normal, has normal friends, etc. But one night when she's saved by two strangers, and all she got was a glimpse of green as they semlessly vanished into thin air, she becomes bound and determined to find who saved her only to tell them one simple sentence: Thank You.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. First Meeting

Stretching her limbs in a position most would find to be extremely awkward and difficult to maintain, Quinn accomplished with a sigh of relief escaping her parted pink lips, her eyes slowly cracking open as her body recoiled back to its normal standing position. Small beads of sweat trailed down her forward, over her porcelain glistening skin and rolled off her chin where it efficiently hit the matted floor beneath her.

Yoga. It was her time to relax, her time to relieve stress and forget about the day's events in as little as an hour… or four since, as she looked outside in complete bewilderment, it was already dark, the street lights illuminating the sidewalk next to her open window gym, a gym she frequented every night for this particularly special time. She usually only allowed herself an hour of Yoga before going home and going about her life, but sometimes she would lose track of time, track of the daylight as she posed and maneuvered in strange positions with her eyes closed, feeling every muscle in her body respond the way she wanted them to move, giving her control she so desperately wanted back after a long day of work. Today was an especially hard day so, in truth, she wasn't taken by surprise to see that it was already dark outside.

With a light hop to her step, she walked over to her gym bag and grabbed a bottle of water, chugging it down and wiping the dribble from her chin when some escaped the suction of her lips. When the bottle was emptied and properly discarded, Quinn didn't bother to take a shower like she usually would but when she considered how late it was, she decided to withhold the cleanliness for one night and wait until she got home, then she would take her shower in the safety of her own bathroom.

She pulled her long, dark brown hair from her ponytail when she stepped outside, running her fingers through the small knots that formed while she was in possession of the Yoga fever, as she liked to call it when she was zoned out doing yoga. She was battling with one nasty knot when something moved in her peripheral vision to the left of her. When she looked, however, there was nothing there in the alleyway. She kept her eyes on the alleyway a couple more seconds, taking everything in, watching the shadows dance with overly antsy excitement with the flickering streetlamps before giving her surroundings one last quick glance heretofore walking home once more. In her bag, she slowly slide her hand in the pocket off to the side, bypassing her lucky rabbits foot dyed purple and feeling the rubber of the handle to her stun gun between her small, slender fingers of her left hand.

She continued to walk, and the longer she walked, however, the more relaxed she felt. In another minute or two, she would be home, safe and ready to take that shower she wanted desperately. The small fright from earlier, most likely due to her imagination, made her nerves stand on end and they hadn't quite calmed down yet, and she knew that once she stepped into that shower, she'd be back to how she felt after her yoga exercise: calm and relaxed.

When her home was only a block away, she relaxed completely, taking her hand out of her bag and readjusting the strap on her shoulder. She looked ahead, watching as her apartment building came into view and let out a small sigh of relief, her anticipation getting the better of her for, what felt like, a long awaited shower. The small fright from earlier now in the back burner of her mind...

A large hand shot out from the shadows, grabbing her left wrist and jolting a shriek from her. The world suddenly spun around her and she soon found herself on the ground, her cheek pressed firmly to the concrete below and a knee pressed into the small of her back making her wince in pain as a hand gripped the hairs on the back of her head, keeping her head in place and out of sight of her attacker.

When she opened her mouth to scream, something was shoved into her mouth, and by the taste of it, she knew it was a cotton handkerchief in which she'd momentarily hoped that it was a clean one… (It tasted clean, did that count?)

"Another move and this hand," her captor started as she began to struggle, his voice muffled from something covering his mouth, showed his right red gloved hand to her. "Will go places you very much wouldn't appreciate."

That made her pause in her pitiful struggles, wondering if all this guy was after was a simple mugging of whatever possessions she may have been carrying - which wasn't a lot. When another pair of shoes came into view, black steel-toe work boots with dark brown cargo pants, she wondered if there were any more of them.

She complied, however, not once trying to struggle as she listened to the other guy that was no longer in her sight go through her belongings. It would be better not to struggle when all they wanted was to mug her, right?

"Nice call, Roy. Look what she was sportin'," the other guy said with bemusement, most likely showing the guy who was on top of her, her stun-gun. "This would'a hurt like a son-of-a-bitch." He laughed before chucking the thing on the ground, making her wonder why they didn't pocket it. That stun-gun was worth as much as one of her bi-weekly checks.

After a minute of them searching her bag, she began to shiver from the cold sweat she was suddenly succumbed to. A bad habit of hers when she was nervous. Her nails dug into the concrete below her as she slowly, and as calmly as she could so not to draw attention, looked around her, hoping to see something, or someone, that could help her get away from these freaks. Another shiver spent through her spine when she couldn't see anything or anyone around her.

"It's not in here…" the one searching her bag declared, standing up and kicking her bag in frustration.

The hand that was already wrapped around the head of her hair, grabbing an even larger fistful of her locks, pulled her head up so her captor could get a better look at her, and vice versa. He was sporting a trench coat, very original, a blue scarf around his jaw, very classy, and a hat and sunglasses covering the top of his head, very attractive… When she turned, or more like moved her eyes since the hair of her head was in a vice like grip, limiting her movement, she looked to the other guy. He, of course, was sporting a similar attire. She couldn't tell if they were amateurs or professional...whatevers. But, Quinn noted, they were doing this out on the street, open for anyone to simply look out their window and see exactly what was happening to her. Granted, it was night and dark out, but anyone could walk in on this scene, effectively ruining their plan...whatever that plan may have been. Which concluded, for Quinn, that they were amateurs. But that didn't matter because they had the upper hand on her. She was in no position to judge them based off of their supposed skills alone. She wasn't a detective, but she knew she was a good judge of character and these guys were just plain old, off of the street thugs.

"Where is it, lady," the man's muffled, deep, voice asked. She didn't have a clue on what he was talking about, and her confusion must have been apparent on her face because he sighed very loudly and shook his head. "Come on, Lady. I don't want to have to use force on you"-didn't he just say he was going to use his hands in a way I didn't like if I didn't comply just a moment ago?-"Just give us what Mr. Johnson is looking for and we'll be on our merry way, no harm done, 'kay?"

He finally reached up with his hand and pulled the handkerchief out of her mouth, a batch of saliva trailing after it. She coughed, finding her mouth to be dry (not surprising considering).

"I don't know what you are talking about or who this Mr. Johnson is," Quinn rasped, her voice straining due to the light pain her scalp was currently undergoing, with the hair pulling and whatnot. "Now," she started, licked her lips, then continued more slowly and with a leveled-head, "Let me sit up and we can discuss what it is you are looking for like adults. We'll be in more comfortable positions to talk, right?"

The man who was gripping Quinn's hair looked at the other, when the other guy shrugged his shoulders he grabbed her arm and pulled her up. He turned her back towards him and tied a cloth around her wrists, probably the handkerchief that was in her mouth earlier, and walked her over to the closest wall and sat her down none too gently. Both stood in front of her, effectively blocking any way of escaping around one of them. Her only choice on the matter was to somehow convince them that whoever they were looking for that stole something precious from this Mr. Johnson guy, so precious that he hired thugs to track the one who stole it down, wasn't, in fact, her.

"Okay look," Quinn began first with mild irritation when an awkward silence fell upon them after she was forcibly sat back down, "Whoever you are looking for, it isn't me. I haven't stolen anything from anyone and I sure as hell don't know anyone with the generic last name of Johnson. Now, please, let's be civil, realize our mistakes, and be on our merry way? Sound good to you? Because it sounds spot on to me if I say so myself."

"No can do, Missy," the one who was looking through Quinn's bag tsked and shook his head. "We have orders to fulfil and I do believe you're lying, if I say so myself," he mocked. So, the one who was digging into her bag was the one with the attitude? She had to keep an eye on him, apparently...

"What do I have to do to make you believe that whoever you are looking for isn't me?" she asked as calmly as she possibly could with her flailing heart that was beating too fast and too rapidly for my own good. She wouldn't be surprised if they heard it, ironically, because it was loud and clear in her ears, beating faster than a set of band drums at a halftime high school football game.

The man who tackled Quinn to the ground took something out of his pocket, a photograph, and stuck it in front of her face. There it showed a woman, wearing the same workout attire as her own and holding the same bag as the one they were searching through earlier, but she had a baseball cap on and her head tilted down, obscuring her face, but she looked exactly like Quinn, even down the Davinci yoga pants, but Quinn could tell that the girl in the picture hips were narrower than her own, the girls stride looked...off, and she had a death grip on her bag, like she was afraid it would disappear from her very grasp.

"First off," Quinn began again, licking her now chapped lips, "I have a bigger ass than the person in this photo. Second, I don't wear ball caps, and third-"

"Enough games, buttercup," said the man with the attitude problem, reaching into his trench coat and pulling out a revolver, "Give us the goods and we'll be done with'it."

Her eyes grew wide, wider than saucer plates, as she followed the barrel of the gun, pointing it at her. "P-please understand that that isn't me! I-I would never steal from anyone!" she pleaded, begged, like a whimpering child. But what else could she do when her life was in the hands of someone who was clearly enjoying her despair, she could practically hear the smile in his voice with his next words…

"Now, now. Lyin' isn' very becomin' of you, sugar. I lil' bullet in the arm should teach ya a lesson."

Her eyes betrayed her fear, small droplets of tears forming in the sockets of her eyes as she watched his hand tightened around the gun. She turned her head away, squeezing her eyes shut as she waited for the pain. But what she heard next made Quinn snap her eyes open again in surprise…

"What the hel - oufh!" The man who tackled Quinn to the ground started when he noticed something off in the distance, and then, just as suddenly, something came flying at him, hitting him right in the middle of his forehead and then causing him to tip back and fall to the ground, clutching his forehead in pain.

The revolver shot out, the noise ricocheting off the walls of the cramped apartment buildings, making Quinn flinch, but the man who was holding the revolver, she could tell he was as confused as her considering he was looking everywhere, left and right, up and down, for the person who threw what looks to be a small rock at his comrades forehead. Quinn looked too, but she couldn't see anyone. When she felt a "woosh" of air next to her, and a heavy footfall, Quinn stiffened. But before she could look to see who, or what, landed next to her, something enveloped her head, covering her whole face and blocking her sight altogether. She let out a small squeal of fear, trying to find some solace of light through what looked like a cloth bag that was thrown over her head. Her hands strained in their restraints, cutting into her wrist as she desperately struggled to get free.

Laughter rang, bouncing off the walls, much like the gunshot, as Quinn heard the two men panting heavily in fear, making weird frightened noises that you would only hear in a B rated movie...or a weird little kiddy cartoon.

"Over here!" the voice that was laughing said with overzealous amusement off to the right. Quinn heard the men move, looking over and another shot rang out. She curled up into a ball, trying her best to make herself small in case the fire was aimed over in her direction.

"Haha! You missed! I'm over here, bro!"

Again, the shot rang out, but didn't find purchase, something she could easily guess considering the aggravated assaults her two assailants were hurtling at her would-be savior.

"Stop playin' around, Mikey and finish the fucking job! I don't have all night!"

"All right, all right! Jeesh...don't have to be so mean about it…"

"Whoever is out there," one of the men started to yell, "Show yourself! Or the girl gets a bullet between the eyes!"

Not being able to see where the gun was pointed or, basically, what was truly happening without her eyesight and all, Quinn duck her head between my legs, hoping that this nightmare would soon end. Preferably with her surviving this ordeal and all the jazz. Definitely would be a plus in her books if she came out of this unscathed…

"No can do, dudes. Whatever this girl did to you can't be that bad? Not someone as cute as her…"

"Mikey!"

"Fine, fine...just suck all the joy out of it, why don't'cha…"

Scuffling, things slicing through the air, one last gun shot and all was silent. Quinn held her breath, her face still in-between my knees as she waited for what was to come next. All she could hear was her heartbeat, beating too loudly, and too annoyingly, in her ear. When a large hand touched my shoulder, she jumped with more surprise than fear, her heart pounding loudly in my chest, seemingly louder than when it was beating in her ear.

"Calm down, yer safe now," the rougher voice of the two "saviors" said right to her left, his hot breath tickling her ear. Quinn felt something slice between my wrists, making them fall to the ground below, free and unrestrained. "Now, I want you to count to ten before takin' off that head coverin' of yours, got that? If you take it off before, I won' be so happy." Was he happy now? He sounded really annoyed and pissed off to her more than anything.

"Uh...Okay, but-" Before she could finish, however, a small influx of air she felt against her skin when he… jumped(?) signaled to her that he left before she could even finish what she was saying to him.

She didn't follow his rule, regardless if he saved her or not. Quinn took off the cotton bag and looked around her, trying to find a glimpse of her savior. The first thing she saw were her two assailants sitting back to back and tied with a chain that was tied tightly around them, both unconscious. It wasn't until she looked up that she saw a flash of green, too fast for her to see what it was, and a pair of green eyes staring at her from the darkness on the rooftop above. The eyes narrowed, pinning her with a glare before disappearing into the night, leaving her alone, the adrenaline still pumping through her veins, but her heavy breathing began to even out when her subconscious finally realized she was no longer in danger. She stood up slowly, sirens and red and blue lights began to wail behind her but she ignored them, looking up toward the rooftop with curious eyes.

She didn't even get the chance to say thank you…


	2. More Trouble

"And then, they just...vanished," Quinn finished, slurping up the last of her instant, chicken-flavored ramen and setting her bowl off to side to give David her full attention. David, however, blinked at her a couple of times before taking a bite of his ham lunch meat sandwich.

"Were they farting rainbows when they ran away?" David asked, his tone quite serious.

Ever since the incident she recounted her story to anyone and everyone who asked, they...didn't believe her. And it looked like David, her best work-friend, didn't believe her either. He was giving her the most ridiculous pointed look with his icy blue eyes that would send most women running for the hills, but not Quinn.

To most, David would seem like a sarcastic bastard, most not getting his leveled tone of perpetual sarcasm which, in fact, was his way of being a jokester, but Quinn knew instantly his real persona. It was why she attached to him so quickly when she first started this particular job a year ago. He was different, she was different. A perfect co-working match made in heaven.

Quinn rolled her eyes before grabbing her bowl again and began swirling her fork in the leftover juices. "I'm serious. I wasn't fantasizing, it actually happened. There's even a police report about it," she mumbled, hating how no one, even her David, didn't believe her ordeal. Of course, they did "believe" she was attacked, or mugged (this is New York) but when she'd talked about two guys running around in green "spandex" (as they said when they deciphered her story) saving her and disappearing into thin air, their trust in her story dwindled ever so slightly, making them believe that her fear forced her imagination into overdrive, making her fantasized being saved by little green dudes, thus automatically assuming she'd meant aliens, or men wearing spandex, like Jeffery, the workforce idiot, started spreading around about her story.

David raised an eyebrow, regarding her before taking another bite of his sandwich. "That must have been quite an experience to undergo, Quinn." Another bite. "I'm not saying I don't believe you"-Another- "It's just the credibility of your story when you were blindfolded isn't all that trustworthy to go by. But regardless," he continued after taking a swig of his canned mountain dew, "I don't have room to talk since I wasn't there. Just seems a little out of this world considering the laws of physics and whatnot." Of course, when she'd said they made it to the rooftop in under a second that was when she'd lost David...

"Says someone who actively follows the foot clan's whereabouts every time he gets the chance," Quinn mumbled again, then smiled when she noticed David giving her the look. The look that most would decipher as, Stop now while you're ahead or feel my wrath, but she knew it to actually mean, Stop now while you're ahead or deal with an even more crankier version of me for the rest of the afternoon. Most wouldn't find a difference between the two, but Quinn knew his "wrath" only lasted a couple of hours then he would forget the reason why he was acting the way he was acting and then forget about the whole ordeal altogether. When others were on the receiving end of his "wrath" they'd always thought they were forever on his radar, which was far from the actual truth. David didn't have a radar to begin with. He always took everything in stride.

In a way, he was like a big brother Quinn always wanted.

"It's informative to know what they are getting into. That information may be crucial in my future endeavors. Wouldn't want to bring the girlfriend around an area that the foot clan are heavily active in." He shrugged.

In actuality, he just thought they were cool with their masks and so on. David, in his own way, was a fanboy of the foot clan. He didn't cheer for them in whatever they were currently getting themselves into, on the contrary, he was on the protagonist side, wanting their tyranny over New York to finally come to an end, just like most of Newyorkians. What he would fanboy over was their ninja like skills. He always admired quality skill and the intricate way they moved about, the foot clan was like an orgasm happening in David's eyes whenever he watched the foot clan in action. Of course, that goes for anyone really, especially when it comes to how people move their bodies, as weirdly as that sounds.

"And yet you don't believe me about my saviors. Just so you know, I never said they were wearing spandex, I just said that the only thing I saw was green and then a pair of green eyes, that's all," I clarified.

"That's not what Nancy said."

"Since when do you talk to Nancy?"

"I was eavesdropping in on her conversation...she was having right next to my cubicle. She said you sounded like a lunatic."

"You do know Nancy doesn't like me, right?"

"Of course I do, but others don't."

"You're so supportive of me, David. Gee, how could I ever live without you." The sarcasm was basically dripping off of every word and I didn't even try to hide it.

"You know you love me."

Getting back to work, Quinn sat in front of her computer, drilling through her expense report, and ignoring the chatter that was happening around her in hushed tones. She stopped mid-type, a sudden idea popping into her head. She began to type, her fingers gliding seamlessly across the keyboard as she watched the screen intently, scrolling down the google search page.

She came across article after article of different type of "unsolved" solved crimes in her area, most notably when unknown vigilantes kept popping up, saving the day and going unnoticed by the public eyes. It turned out, there was a big search on the so-called saviors, a search that had been ongoing for years. She looked through websites and blogs started by other people claiming to have had been saved by the unknown vigilantes and a wide search for the heroes behind the mask identities to finally come to a solved end.

How come this had never been on the news?! Posters out of the street asking for the vigilantes to come forth and reveal themselves?! No public announcements and all that jaz?! Why hadn't she heard anything about these guys, or guys and girls, until now?

It didn't make sense, and the more she looked into it, the more befuddled she became on the matter. It wasn't until she finally got off work and was on her way to the orphanage that she decided on something.

She decided that she would find out who the vigilantes were and once she found them she would…

Tell them Thank You…

She didn't get the chance to last time, after all, and it was overdue, obviously, based on the google search she'd done earlier.

She tightened her hand around her gym bag and walked with a little more determination in her step and a sparkle in her eye.

"I'm so huuunggry!" whined an overly bored voice over the couch, one three fingered green hand resting on the top, flexing as he spoke his complete and utter disdain. "When is the pizza going to get here?! I haven't ate in forever…"

"You just ate an hour ago, Mikey, remember? You had the rest of last night's Pizza. All five slices," replied a figure that was hunched over a couple of computer monitors, his large shell facing the direction of the disgruntled voice. The figure turned, revealing a certain turtle with a purple eye mask. "Leo should be here shortly, be patient."

"But I'm about to die! Don't you understand? Don't you care?" The hand slipped off the top of the sofa and up popped a head, a pair of bright blue eyes with an orange mask decorating part of his upper face stared at his brother from across the little foyer, watching as the purple masked turtle turned and began working on a little gadget while simultaneously keeping an eye on the monitor of his computer.

"You're not going to die. Why don't you do something more productive while you wait instead of sitting there and just...being you?"

"You're no fun, Donnie. No fun at all."

"I'm being practical, not fun. We're not teenagers anymore, we need to take on more responsibilities. Master Splinter shouldn't have to tell you to clean up your mess, you should do it automatically." Donnie turned in his chair and looked at the weeks' worth of chip wrappers that surrounded the Sofa, driving in his point.

"Hey, I clean up," Mickey started, then continued with a mumble, "Sometimes."

"Exactly, Mikey. Exactly."

"When does Mikey ever clean up after himself?" said a bemused, yet serious voice.

Both brothers looked over to see their brother that adorns a blue mask walking in with five Pizza's in tow, his light, yet, in a way, authoritative smile decorated his otherwise serious face.

"Finally!" Mikey exclaimed, running over to his brother and "helping" him with the load. "I thought I was going to die!" He opened up the Pizza box as he walked with Leo, drool forming and almost overflowing his gums when he looked at the beautiful greasy masterpiece he called dinner.

Leo chuckled. "Sure you were. I can already see your ribs from here."

Mikey head jerked down, moving the pizza boxes away from him so he can get a better look at his abdomen. "What? Seriously?"

Both brothers shook their heads, smiling at their goofy brother as he examined his plastron, wondering if he even knew that they couldn't even see their ribs.

As Mikey fingered his plastron, Leo turned to Donnie while setting the Pizza boxes on the table, all joking aside. "Did you find anything out on our most recent mistake?"

Donnie sighed and turned back to his computer, grabbing a slice of the pepperoni pizza before giving the screen of his computer his full attention. Taking a bite of his slice, Donnie began by saying, "Her name is Quinn, 20, grew up in an orphanage, went to New York schools, finished with a 4.3 gpa - pretty impressive if you ask me, she must have done a lot of extra credit - has her associates in computer programing and is currently working on her Bachelor's degree, right now only taking a Saturday summer class, at New York IT Tech. She works for NKO Corporation as a rebate specialist and volunteers at the local orphanage after work. Likes Yoga, and trains alone at Starlight gym every night. She currently resides in an apartment ten blocks west of the gym in a relatively calm neighborhood..."

Leo knew Donnie wasn't telling him everything and when he didn't continue he took a step forward, placing his hand on the back of Donnie's chair, Leo stared at the screen Donnie was currently working on, gathering all the info he could see on the screen on this Quinn girl. "And?"

"Well," Donnie began hesitantly, finishing off his slice and trying to reach for a second one, "She did a recent google search on us at work. Nothing serious, all the websites and blogs that may reveal our whereabouts and son and so forth have been taken down as soon, or even before, they are published, but she searched for at least an hour and even joined a blog group that actively search for new information on us. You know the one. They don't know anything about us, but are only aware that we exist right now."

"For the time being," Leo added, crossing his arms and watched the screen intently, a picture of Quinn staring back at him big eyed and smiling happily at the camera next to small children and an older woman. They stood in front of a building, most presumably the orphanage Donnie mentioned she volunteers on a regular basis. He took note on her two differentiating eyes; one blue and one green with a brown speck off the right of the pupil. Her teeth were perfectly straight and white, her face was what most would call heart-shaped and she looked to be around 5'2", maybe 5'3" at most. Not very tall. She was pale, too. It made her dark, wavy brown hair more prominent as it framed her face.

"Other than that," Donnie continued, ignoring Leo's calculative stare, "She's a relatively normal human being. Nothing suspicious about her."

"Except she doesn' follow rules too well," an all too familiar voice boomed from above. Raph stood above them all, leaning against the railing of the floor above them as he looked down upon them with narrowed eyes framed by his prominent red mask.

"You're one to talk, Raph." Leo turned his stare to Raph, cocking his eyebrow at his brother. Raph scuffed and looked the other way, his frustration rather evident.

Over the years, Raph's and Leo's relationship has gotten better. They still fought here and there, but Raph always followed his lead when they were out on patrol, even if he did voice his disapproval from time to time. But other than the narrowed eyed glares and his disapproving attitude, Raph always followed Leo's lead to the T. Something he learned and knew was the best course of action if he wanted the mission to be successful. Raph may have been the strongest of the brothers, but Leo had the leadership they all needed, and Raph now knew that lesson the hard way through past mistakes he'd made. .

But sometimes they still got on each other's nerves.

"All she had to do was keep the damn cloth on her head, it wasn' a hard rule to follow. Next time I'll ducktape it to their heads. Wouldn' be dealing with this now if I'd gone and done that in the first place."

Raph jumped from his perch above and landed on the floor below. He walked over to the pizza and grabbed two slices for himself.

"We're not duct taping a piece of cloth to anyone's head," Leo said, shaking his own head. "This problem will most likely solve itself. In a week or so she'll forget about us and move on with her life."

"Or she could be another April," Mikey added, stuffing his fifth slice into his mouth and licking his fingers.

"No." Leo turned away, looking back at the screen with Quinn's picture. "We don't need to bring anyone else into our lives. It'll only put them in unnecessary danger."

"Aww," Mikey whined loudly, "Getting my hopes up for no reason. I see how it is…"

"Or she'll end up like the other chic. Dead," Raph added in, going for another slice of pizza.

Leo gave him a sharp look but didn't comment on it. He was right. A similar incident like this one occurred roughly two years ago. They'd saved a girl but she didn't get the chance to see who her saviors were, only a small glimpse, and she became obsessed with finding them. So obsessed that two months into her search she began to purposely put herself into harm's way. She ended up losing her life to a local gang they'd been following at the time. Leo couldn't forgive himself for his foolishness. He vowed that he wouldn't let another life slip through his fingers if he could, in anyway, do something about it.

But he was at a conflict: If he revealed himself, maybe he could save this Quinn girls life if she goes to the same extent of trying to find them as Ashley did, but on the other hand he'd risk the lives of his family. He couldn't do that to them, but he couldn't let someone die because he was too foolish to reveal himself to a curious soul.

If it did come to that, he would need to take precaution that she wouldn't blab their secret to the world. Maybe she could be another April, like Mikey had suggested. Based off of what Donnie told him about her, she seemed like a model citizen. Helping out at an orphanage, which he suspected that need to help derived from her own experience from living at one for most her life. It surprised him, however, that she was capable of balancing work, volunteer work at the orphanage, and school…

He didn't want to decide on anything yet. He wanted to get to know her a little more before he made any rash decision if her pursuit becomes more than a nuisance for them. He hoped that she'd give up once all her leads come up empty. Now they just had to watch and see if she would do anything stupid from here on out.

"Where she at now, Donnie?"

Donnie, now sitting at the table with his two other brothers, stopped midway from devouring the last slice of pizza, the slice only inches away from his mouth and dripping delicious cheesy oil. He sighed and placed the last slice on the table, telling his brothers not to eat it before turning back to the computer. He typed for a couple of seconds before finally saying, "She should be at Yoga right now. Her cell phone is located at the gym she frequents daily, so I suspect she's practicing right now as we speak."

"Good. Maybe that search was only a curious fluke. If she goes about her daily routine without incident again for a month then it should be safe to say she no longer cares about finding out who saved her yesterday." Then a thought struck him. "Did you find out the identities of the two who attacked her?"

"Yep," Donnie began, typing on his computer again and brought up their records, "Roy and Larry Tonkin, brothers, thugs, have criminal records of assault, battery, robberies, and the list goes on. I'm actually surprised they aren't in prison right now. They must have friends or family in high places."

"Do you know why they attacked her last night or was it just a coincident?"

"Well…" Donnie started, then scratched the back of his head in slight apprehension before continuing, "They were hired by Mr. Johnson, the "recent crime lord" of our little city. Cops have been trying to pin the recent murders at a local meth lab on him but they didn't find aby inclusive evidence, apparently. He has a really good lawyer… Anyways, it looks like his name was dropped when they were questioning them, saying she stole something from him and all they were doing was collecting."

"Stole what?"

Donnie shrugged his shoulders. "I don't really know. The report doesn't go into detail about it, but whatever it is and Johnson wants it back then-"

"She's in more danger than we realize," Leo continued while walking away. He grabbed Mikey by his shell and dragged him away before he could take the last piece of Pizza off the table leaving Raphael to snatch it and devour it before Donnie had the chance to turn and retake it for himself.

"Hey!" Donnie's accusing voice was the last thing they heard when walking through the tunnels of the sewers, the two turtled heading their way to a certain gym…

Do you ever get that feeling that you're being watched, be it at work or simply walking down a street, but when you look around there's no one there? Quinn was having that feeling but every time she searched for whoever was giving her the creepy, pedo-stare (even though she's 20 now), she couldn't see, or find, anyone staring at her.

It was still daylight out, she actually set the timer on her phone this time so she wouldn't be the last to leave the gym like yesterday and get ambushed by stinky men, which, in her books, was always a plus. Of course, she doubted she would ever see her saviors again unless she was in immediate danger, as she guessed from reading other people's run-ins with the saviors in shadow when they were miraculously saved by them, but was she crazy enough to put herself in that much danger again?

Possibly, yes...

But she still couldn't shake that feeling off and it, unfortunately, was starting to drive her bozo crazy. If someone had something to say to her they should come out and confront her! Don't trail behind her. Maybe she was being stalked again… maybe she was about to be jumped again...

It was daylight out, no way would anyone do it right then and there. She was safe, right? Right.

The feeling didn't subside as she continued her walk. In fact, it got worse as she neared her apartment building.

When she finally arrived to her apartment building and easily entered without incident, Quinn took a heavy sigh of relief while she waited in the elevator, letting her nerves calm before stepping out when the elevator stopped on her floor. Walking over to her door that contained a decent size living space, she fished her keys out of her bag and went to open it, but as soon as she put just the tiniest bit of pressure on her door with her key, it creaked open.

She stood there momentarily, panicked, distinctly remembering locking the door before she left when she said her goodbyes to whiskers and fluffnutter, but without a second thought she dashed right in and looked around her. Her apartment was a mess, everything was thrown to the floor, her side table drawers thrown and shattered on the ground, all her paperwork, jars of cash, her belongings, everything. But as her eyes scanned her room, she only glanced at her shattered belongings, looking for something unmistakingly fluffy, but couldn't see anything that resembled what she was searching for. She quickly walked over to her bedroom down the hallway, shaking her head when she passed the kitchen to see it in a similar state, and into her bedroom. Not to her surprise, everything was ruined. Even her clothes had slashes in them like someone decided they wanted to practice their slashing skills on them.

She looked around, seeing if she could find any indication of two certain things she was searching for and not really caring about the mess as she looked around her ruined apartment bedroom.

And, to her dismay, off to the right her glass sixty gallon enclosure was shattered that she kept on her dresser. When she ran over to it, she couldn't see the creature that was supposed to reside in it. Lifting up pieces of glass and ignoring the small cut on her hand when one slide down her palm on accident, she lifted up a small plastic cave the creature liked to reside in and found it empty.

Quinn could feel a panic attack forming in her chest, crippling her to her knees as her breathing became erratic, tears pooling in her eyes. She called out her bearded dragon's name, then her cats. Nothing. She crawled to the bed and looked underneath: nothing again.

"No, no, no, no, no," she whispered as she crawled around the room, looking for the two things that mattered the most in her life.

Then she heard it, a little mew. She turned around and listened carefully. There it was again, and again. She crawled over to where the sound was coming from until she came to her broken down bedroom wardrobe. She peered inside and saw nothing. Again she heard it...her eyes landed on a piece of drywall she had in the closet that she had extra of when she was remodeling her kitchen. She reached forward and pulled it back. She felt her tears finally fall when she saw the two things that mattered most to her in Quinn's small world behind that drywall, both looking up at her with big eyes.

"Fluffnutter..." She looked at her fluffy, a white and grey cat with tears in her eyes, then down to her never blinking yellow lizard, "Whiskers!" She crawled more into her closet and encircled the two creatures in her arms before getting up and walking out of the closet, her cat not fighting her in the least as he usually would do, tears now flowing freely down her cheeks. She paced back and forth in her bedroom, letting the tears fall as she clutched her two favorite animals in the world. If anything ever happened to them, she would be devastated.

"I'm so, so, so sorry," she whispered, sniffling as she tried to calm herself down, feeling her heart slow down to a steady and even pace as she tried her best to calm down.

When she finally sat down on her slashed bed with tears finally fading, she sat the now ansty cat and the beardy down on her torn bed and watched as the cat meandered over to one of the pillows that had feathers sticking every which way from it and curled up on top of it, sneezing when a feather came too close to his nose. Her lizard just sat/stood in the same spot that he was set down on and didn't make one single movement, or blinked an eye, or turned his head to regard her. She couldn't help but smile at the two. They were perfect. Knowing that her animals, her life, were okay, it made her feel, in a way, better about her situation.

But unfortunately, now she had to call in the break-in…

Leo watched as she paced back and forth in her room, clutching a very fluffy cat and a lizard to her chest, relief and more tears flooding her eyes. Any doubts he had of her, any concern of her character, vanished, just like that. He felt, in a way, sorry for her. When she was searching for her pets, he could see the devastation in her eyes. He could see that she cared for those two pets more than she cared for her wellbeing consider how she charged into her apartment and started her search for her pets without, or maybe with, thought if the people who intruded and brought destruction to her little apartment could still, in fact, be in there. It was foolish of her, inconsiderate of her. But he admired her courage and he admired her care and love for the small things in life like her cat and lizard.

"That's rough, man. That's going to take forever to clean up…" Mikey said as he too watched the girl finally sit down on her bed, watching as her cat curled up into a small fluffy ball and her lizard just...standing there. "Bro, I think the lizards sees us. It's looking right at me," Mikey said from his crouched position on the rooftop.

Leo glanced at the lizard. From where they were standing on top of the roof adjacent from Quinn's apartment window, he couldn't tell if it was indeed looking at them or not, then he shook his head when he realized how ridiculous that sounded.

But now he had a new problem at the forefront of his mind: who were the guys who trashed Quinn's apartment and what exactly are they after?


End file.
